


Hell Hath No Fury

by mishamalchik



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Galen whump, Gen, Krennic is a dick, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Psychological Torture, Sexual Violence, Torture, gratuitous whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:55:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9115978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishamalchik/pseuds/mishamalchik
Summary: A collection of shorts about Galen being forced to work for his scorned ex-lover, highlighting the violence Krennic is capable of when his aspirations are threatened.





	1. Chapter 1

Author's note: 

This will be a collection of short stories, updated without any specific continuity. The scene in which Krennic has the scientists killed struck me as characteristic of his reaction whenever the project met any resistance or complications and I wanted to explore the depths of Krennics paranoia and cruelty. There will be some implied sexual violence but nothing will ever be explicitly described. 

First fanfiction so comments are appreciated but do be constructive!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Galen Erso was never a soldier. He was never trained for combat, never given the tools to make his body a weapon and he was never trained to withstand pain like this, the maddeningly consistent ache in his bones which was punctuated by the sharp frustrated blows of a man pushed beyond the brink of patience. Yet, here he was. Nearly plastered to the floor of an imperial holding cell, blood and his broken body alike congealing him to the cold durasteel. 

In the beginning, Galen’s flat out refusal to work was short lived, Krennic had seen to that personally, had pounded his body into submission with the sheer force of his trained fists. The beating was almost ritualized, a long awaited brutalizing that was steeped in personal vendetta and one that Krennic seemed to genuinely enjoy giving. Galen was forced to his knees before he could finish his statement of refusal, his mouth poured with blood from a vicious blow before he could even process what had happened and his body was a mess of pain in minutes of Krennic’s expert care. Even after Galen submitted, understanding that it was far better to bend than to break, the beating continued. Fists and sharp, pointed imperial boots rained upon him, slamming the message home brutally: There was nothing left of the man he once knew and loved and this was about far more than a weapon design. Krennic didn’t just want Galen to submit, he wanted him utterly broken, as putty to be molded. 

That was always Orson’s problem. Nothing was ever enough to satiate his endless hunger; a craving that included prestige, accolades and the soul of Galen Erso. It was not enough to be loved, he had to be worshiped. It was not enough to be considered a life partner, he had to be the only presence in Galen’s life. This constant hunger for dominance, for ownership and for debilitating control is what destroyed their relationship as youth and this same hunger prolongs the suffering of Galen now. It is not enough to give into Krennic’s commands, he must fundamentally subject himself beneath his tormentor.

“Beg me” 

Krennic states it expectantly. The threat of violence hangs in the air as the imperial officers fist tightens, floating tenuously above Galens crumbled form. The hesitation is too apparent and at once Krennic drives his foot into the scientists gut, expertly aimed at the intersection of fractured rib and bruised muscle resulting in an unabashed cry of anguish. 

“Beg for forgiveness!” He screams this time, grabbing matted hair and slamming Erso’s beaten body against the wall, holding it there flush against his own and all Galen can do is groan at the mistreatment. After the pain settles Galen understands that this shattered, ambition driven machine of a man still blames him for his indiscretion after all these years. Never mind that Lyra was at that time no more than a friend, never mind that he kept it a secret to combat the blind jealousy of his lover. Krennic was the man he left, the man he abandoned to his own violent devices years ago; Krennic was the man he burned, the price for which is paid in broken bones, bruised flesh and Lyra’s grave.

Once again, Krennic’s impatience inspires violence and Galen can’t help but scream when a fist drives the air out of his lungs, and the agony into his ailing ribs. The cry reverberates through the room and Orson shifts, such that Galen can clearly discern the distinct pleasure he gets from this. The realization of his predicament and Krennic’s suggestion burns through him, and fear at once takes place of any pride he may have had. 

“ Orson, please, don’t” 

His voice is a near whisper, exhaustion agony and tepid fear laced into it. 

“Please Orson, forgive me” he whispers. 

But with Orson Krennic, it’s never enough.


	2. Chapter 2

       Krennic continues on about life as if nothing had changed since the capture of his old friend. He teases and jests and talks about the old days, as if he had not just crushed his closest friend beneath his heel and locked him away to do slave labor for the empire. He plays at kindness and familiarity yet the moment Erso so much as blinks out of line, the violent reprimand is swift and merciless. Galen Erso lives walking on the eggshells of his imperial taskmaster’s patience, and the stress of living in constant fear of punishment takes its toll in sleepless nights and private tears. Yet what eats at Galen the most is that for all the people he watched Krennic destroy, friends, lovers, family, classmates, teachers, he never once imagined that the cold, calculating vengeance would be turned on him. Somewhere deep down, he assumed that Krennic still cared for him. Even when he fled with Lyra, he never once feared for himself. He feared for his wife, for their daughter and for the love his family exuded because he understood he had everything Krennic wanted for them, but with someone else. He never thought Orson could hurt him and yet here he is, laying in the infirmary nursing broken ribs and a shattered sense of agency.

      He’s given something for the pain, and told to get to work immediately. Krennic has informed him that he has two weeks to complete the schematics and even picking up from where he left off before with a team of scientists behind him, Galen gawks at the demand. He’d be working to exhaustion, day in and day out and Krennic has made it clear that for every day past the 2 week deadline, one of his subordinates will be killed. He’s told that there will be no accommodations made for his injuries as they are his own doing; he shouldn’t have resisted the empire.

       Galen wants to be angry, he wants to be terrified, he wants to be vindictive and he wants to process his situation in order to best plan his next move, but he’s not even given the time to heal his body, let alone his mind. This was perhaps all part of Krennic’s plan; With lives hanging in the balance and an insurmountable amount of work on his plate he has no time to even consider resistance. It’s then that Galen realizes the intentional impossibility of the task Krennic has set before him. It simply can’t be done and Krennic has set this task before him for the sole purpose of punishing him later; Galen has seen this sick game before and at once a spark of indignant anger rises in him. Krennic will see his demand met, or Galen Erso will have died trying.

       Over the next two weeks, little is seen of the engineering team. In a move that earned him a particularly violent beating in front of the entire squad, he informs his engineering team of Krennic’s ultimatum. He hadn’t violated the instructions Orson gave, yet the ingenuity he showed by bringing his team together for the sake of their own lives erks Krennic to such a point that he breaks 3 of Galen’s fingers and beats him into unconsciousness. Yet, in a sense of community that Krennic cannot begin to understand, this only serves to bring the team closer together, because if they are to survive this they must make up for Galen’s injuries.

         A young, brilliant scientist takes on the role of transcribing for Galen. Gemma is the fastest writer of them all, having come fresh from the academy, and her ability to read Erso’s old warped notes is invaluable to the project. She has brown hair and bright, sparkling eyes that painfully remind Galen of his Jyn, so much so that were it not for the sake of their lives, Galen doubts he could stand to be in a room with her. She shines like his stardust and the feelings this similarity stirs in him are more painful than his broken hand.

        In the course of two weeks, the team works around the clock, moving in shifts but ultimately sleeping so little that the days blend together into a haze of calculations and simulations. Krennic thought it impossible to finish in 14 days, but they could have finished in 12, though Galen stalls. If they leave time to spare, the Orson he knows will give them 10 days next time, and 8 the time after that. Krennic will push until he finds the breaking point, and Galen has no intention of exceeding his expectations.

         Even through the exhaustion and guilt of building such a terror for the empire, in these moments Galen Erso is as happy as he could hope to be in this situation. There is work to be done, calculations to be seen through, and a series of problems that he can actually do something about, which does wonders for his lost agency. As he gazes over the completed holo on the morning of the 14th day, he feels that in some strange way, he has beaten Krennic, even if by doing so he’s given the man exactly what he wanted.

          Krennic stalks into the lab with a predator’s smile. There’s no way Galen, even with all his brilliance, would have been able to complete the task and he knows that this punishment will ensure he’s properly motivated for the grueling months to come. Yet there’s little sense of urgency or panic as he enters the lab. The team is at work, but they fail to present the fear that Krennic has come to relish from those confronting their mortality.

“Commander Krennic, the plans, as you requested” Galen greets him with a perfectly monotone voice, carefully devoid of any semblance of emotion.

      Krennic reviews the holo carefully and much to his surprise, finds that they are in fact complete. He is for a moment utterly speechless. How? This task would have been grueling for a team twice the size with a full standard month.

Krennic simply smiles wolfishly; Galen Erso never ceases to amaze.

“Well done, old friend” He gazes around the room at the haggard faces, worn by sleep deprivation and the unbelievable pressure of designing for their lives.

“ Your team looks a bit worse for the wear, though” Krennic smirks “ come and see me this evening, we will discuss the future of the project”

He then turns on his heel and there is a nearly audible release of tension as he leaves the work room.

____________

       Galen never goes to see him, because Krennic comes to visit him in his makeshift office. It’s the afternoon now, and most of the staff has left, taking what little reprieve they may have but Galen remains, hoping to get a head start on whatever ridiculous task Orson will set him to next. Gemma remains also, ever vigilant in assisting Galen’s process but she stepped out to the canteen.

“Galen, there’s something curious about the plans you gave me” Krennic begins and Galen shivers. Something is not right, he doesn’t know what it is, what his engineers left out in their exhaustion or what sort of demand they failed to meet but he senses tension.

“I apologize for any failures of the design, Krennic with your permission-” he states carefully stroking Krennic’s sense of control

“- I will fix them presently”

“ OH? Haha it’s nothing like that, old friend” Krennic says in genuine amusement and the gesture of good humor throws Galen off balance.

“ The design exceeds my expectations and will serve the empire well” Krennic states proudly and while Galen bristles at assisting the empire, he relaxes for a moment.

“However, I noticed a discrepancy in the project’s modification log” Krennic pulls the file up on his comm.  
“If you look early on, you will see the most progress, yet in these last two days only a few modifications were made, almost as if someone were attempting to stall progress...” Krennic finishes with an accusatory glare and Galen freezes.

“Some of the modifications were more time consuming than others, Krennic, I personally-” Galen would like to continue to plea his case but Orson lashes out, cuffing him hard across the face.

“LIAR” Krennic nearly shouts and changes instantly, from calm laughter and innuendo to a raging, violent storm.

“ I checked the log, you left the simplest tasks for the very end, clearly in case you needed to rush to complete them” Krennic sneers and raises his hand back as if to strike the scientist again but the dark lining of an idea distracts him.

“Tell me Galen, which of your scientists is it that slows your team down so much that you feel you have to make time allowances for the future?” Krennic sneers, slipping his hand to his blaster holster with no hesitations.

“ I told you before, my mind is not what it used to be, I made those allowances for myself” Galen nearly whispers and instinctively tries to pull away as Krennic grabs his hair and forces him to look up.

“ Name one or I kill them all” The imperial officer commands, relishing the look of desperate hopelessness that creeps into Galens sullen eyes.

“ We met your demands! Krennic please, we’ve done all that you’ve asked, I’ve done all that you asked!” Galen pleads with little reservation, pulling lightly at the fabric of Orson’s officer jacket.

        At that moment, Gemma returns with food in hand, a meal she had picked up for Galen, knowing from experience how frequently the lead scientist skips meals. Krennic turns to her and smiles, blaster in hand and before Galen can finish screaming for her to run, a blaster shot rips through her heart.

         In that moment a part of Galen dies too, the part of him who somehow thought he would ever be able to see Jyn again. As she hits the durasteel floor, all Galen can see is his daughter’s crumpled body. As Krennic turns and smiles viciously at him he is reminded that Orson Krennic corrupts all that he touches, that he is a cancer of violence that has infested Galen Erso to his core. There is no escape from this project.

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Krennic chuckles and leans in close while tears threaten to fall from Galens eyes. He snatches his chin none too lightly and meets the engineer's eyes with a barely maintained calm.

“ If you ever attempt to lie to me, or threaten the integrity of this project again, Galen Erso I swear to you I’ll gut every person that has so much as given you a polite greeting” His voice is deadly calm and Galen knows he means it. For the first time since the first day here, Galen is terrified.

“Now, clean up your mess” he says kicking the body lightly inciting a rage Galen didn’t know he had.

That night, in a heartbroken rage Galen Erso makes 252 modifications to the Death Star plans. One of them is an additional exhaust port.


	3. Chapter 3

When Krennic insists that Galen move into his personal quarters, it’s all the scientist can do not to make every desperate attempt to flee. With the plans completed, there’s now copious amounts of free time while the empire ravages the galaxy for resources and this bodes well for none left in Krennic’s care. Retrieving the full required mass of kyber crystals will take years in Galen’s estimation. And so while they wait, Galen spends his nights tied in a gilded cage, made to entertain the whims of a man who lives to see his demise. 

He no longer resists Krennic in any way, not that he was ever able to put up a good fight. Rather than attempting to avoid pain, he simply does his best to minimize it, accepting the fact that Krennic will hurt him, will punish him, will take him if he wants to. It’s not about obedience, it’s about power, and when Krennic feels threatened he re-elevates himself by making Galen suffer. Sometimes he manufactures a reason, sometimes he doesn’t bother; sometimes he attacks Galen’s body with violence, sometimes he attacks Galen’s mind with the death of his peers. 

Since Gemma, Krennic has succeeded in isolating Galen. He speaks to others at the absolute minimum, refuses to show any semblance of kindness or preference for any soul on the base. In addition, there is a growing discontent with him among the other scientists, some of whom blame him for the mysterious death of Gemma, others are terrified to be seen with him, knowing full well that to be in Galen’s presence is to be on Krennic’s radar. Most days Galen has taken to silently watching the rain fall. With no work to distract him, the memories of his happiness are constantly seeping into his thoughts, and they’ve made him fragile; his emotions have become like the delicate triviality of a wet paper bag. 

He misses them so much it leaves a palpable ache in his chest when he thinks of them, of Lyrra’s graceful smile or Jyn’s spirited laughter. In Krennic he finds none of this, not a single bit of humanizing emotion, and he realizes that in many ways the imperial officer is the same shell of a man that Galen finds in the fresher mirror each morning; hollow, unfulfilled and imprisoned beneath the heel of the empires ambition, whether Krennic would admit it or not. Power over others is an illusion, as even Krennic answers to the empire's demands. While he seems to get genuine satisfaction out of harming Galen, out of hearing his cries of pain,out of feeling his flesh cave beneath blows and out of taking him without reservation, it doesn’t seem that the man will ever be satisfied and this is a fate that terrifies Galen. Not the idea that his task master will never tire of his suffering, but rather the idea that he himself could be approaching a life like Krennic’s; a life in which no human emotion can be found. 

In Krennic Galen sees the danger that comes from isolation, so in spite of his fears and guilts, he decides to take active measures to get outside of Krennic’s room. An opportunity presents itself quite readily, as kyber crystal shipments are beginning to arrive from Jedha, so in order to fulfill his duties as chief engineer and in order to save himself from crippling loneliness, he decides to inspect these shipments. 

The hangar is absolutely bustling with new recruits, new instruments for Krennic to use, Galen thinks cautiously. He flashes his credentials without making eye contact and heads to the shuttle storage to inspect the kyber crystals. When he gets there his heart aches for his Lyrra, the crystals warm glow returns his mind to her, the love of his life whose life was dedicated to the study of these formations. 

They are clear, cleanly cut and stacked in efficient, clinical columns, nothing at all like the natural cut formation, which is jagged and beautifully impure. Of course it had to be processed and refined, like all things the empire taints. 

“What was that, sir?” A voice calls out from behind the stacks and Galen freezes. He can’t believe he’d just said that out loud, having been alone for too long to properly filter his irritation. 

From behind the unnaturally squared rocks emerges a rough, shining crystal in its own rite; a tall, lanky pilot with dark hair and dark skin and eyes that glimmer with youthful humor. 

“Nothing at all, ensign” Galen states without looking at the boy. 

“ Is that the kind of talk they teach you in officer candidate school?” He laughs, and Galen’s ears burn with excitement, having forgotten the sound of genuine laughter. 

“ I knew I should have commissioned” He smirks. And Galen at once starts to defend himself, his sense of fear no longer so far gone, but the young pilot interrupts him and Galen can see already how much a novice the boy really is, to nearly interrupt a superior officer. 

“ I know what you mean, sir, Jedha is my home planet and these crystals are far from what I remember” the boy pauses noting the deep bruise Galen’s left cheek.

“But you should be careful, sir, between you and me, I’ve heard director Krennic is a real hard ass” 

And Galen can’t help but smile at that. 

For the first time the scientist looks into the boy's eyes, a deep brown, and sees a thread of hope. His brilliant mind works years in the future, and he sees hope for the rebellion, hope for the galaxy, but most presently, he sees hope for his own self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the very end of this one of my typos was "he sees hoe for his own self"..... A Freudian slip perhaps ? :)


End file.
